Due to numerous practical considerations, pills are not manufactured in dosages small enough to satisfy the needs of all pill consumers. For example, dosages appropriate for small children or adults who are especially sensitive to particular medication are often less than the dosage contained in one tablet or pill (the terms “pill” and “tablet” are used interchangeably throughout this document). In addition, some individuals find it difficult to swallow large pills and would prefer breaking a large pill into smaller parts before consumption.
Primitive methods of breaking pills include snapping pills by hand or cutting pills with an ordinary knife while holding the pill with one's fingers. These primitive methods commonly result in tablet crumbling and/or personal injury. Accordingly, attempts have been made to develop tablet cutters for safely and efficiently cutting tablets. Exemplary tablet cutters are disclosed in the following U.S. patents to Eric (U.S. Pat. No. 6,557,945); Leopoldi et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,826); Gaffney et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,517,871); and Davoren (U.S. Pat. No. 2,655,259). Though today there exist safer and more effective alternatives to using an ordinary knife to split tablets, current tablet cutters can be difficult to manipulate, result in excess tablet crumbling, and include potentially dangerous exposed cutting edges. In addition, known devices can often be difficult to manufacture due to particular design complexities. It would be a significant advance in the art to provide a tablet cutter that embodies fewer of the above-identified shortcomings.